SAT dismisses Reliance Industries' appeal for settlement with SEBI

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday dismissed an appeal by Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) seeking an opportunity to settle a case with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) involving suspected illegal trading by the energy conglomerate in one of its subsidiaries.

In its appeal to the tribunal, Reliance had argued SEBI had not given it an opportunity to request the settlement of the case under a process called consent proceedings.

Under consent proceedings, parties involved in disputes with SEBI can settle them without admission of guilt.

SAT, in dismissing Reliance's appeal on Monday, ruled that revised consent proceedings rules SEBI introduced last year, which were retrospectively applied, do not allow a case rejected from consent proceedings to be appealed.

"The rejection of the consent application was wrong," a Reliance spokesman said. "Clearly the appeal would have been allowed had it not been for the Ordinances having retrospective effect."

The case involves a notice issued by SEBI in December 2010 that alleged that Reliance could have breached Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practice Regulations.

In a separate case, SEBI last year had fined another Reliance unit 110 million rupees ($1.8 million) over suspicions of insider trading.